Wendy Portillo

I have 21 years of experience as a Crime Scene Technician for two Police Departments. The last 19 years and 8 months have been spent at the Hayward Police Department. At the Hayward Police Department, I worked with the patrol officers and the detectives by responding to crime scenes. While at these crime scenes, I performed technical tasks such as the preservation of evidence. Some of these duties consisted of lifting fingerprints, collecting DNA swabs, body fluids, collecting clothing, and dislodging bullets. After I performed these tasks, I packaged the evidence items for storage, by ensuring proper packaging techniques and chain of custody procedures. I Photographed nearly every crime scene, and I utilized an SLR camera. I also interpreted evidence using an Alternate Light Sources, named Crime Scope. These crime scenes ranged from the most heinous crimes to property crimes. After evidence collection was performed, I documented each and every crime scene with a court report that I comprised, and entered into the police database. I constructed diagrams using Crime Zone software and assisted with reconstruction as well. I maintained a communicative and professional relationship with my co-workers, sworn and civilian. Occasionally, I photographed promotional ceremonies, and events not related to crime. When I was not responding to crime scenes, I processed evidence in a laboratory, and I was able to recover photographs, fingerprints and DNA. I excelled at working with limited supervision and I developed important decision making skills. The last step in the crime scene process was testifying in court, which I have done multiple times.

I am retired from the Hayward Police Department and I have at least 25 Certificates in Crime Scene Education.